Continuing my January 22 post, which asserted that Harrison's two contributions to Abbey Road ([170] "Something" and [177] "Here Comes the Sun") elevated his songwriting status to a level never previously reached, this blog will further illustrate Harrison's increased compositional sophistication through a comparison of the opening motive and the macro-scale tonal structure of "Something".

The "Something" motive outlines the interval of a minor third between A and C, which is then filled in chromatically (using every tone in between). This can be observed in the graphic below.

The tonal form, then, implements those boundary tones as large-scale tonal areas for the structure of the song. The verses ("Something in the way she moves...") are in C major, while the Middle 8 ("You're asking me will my love grow...") is in A major. Thus, the motive is not only unified with the melody of the verse, but also with overall tonal form - another technical tactic distinctly absent in Harrison's earlier compositions.